The players that the Pirates chose to protect aren’t much of a surprise, with the slight exception of McPherson (who quietly had a very solid year in West Virginia). Notable names not protected include Jim Negrych, Eric Fryer, Nathan Adcock, and Brian Friday.

The bigger surprise was the announcement that three players that have been with the big club for the past couple years are gone, poof, just like that. Duke and LaRoche were near locks to go this offseason, but most of us were expecting a non-tender in early December, not a DFA. Young wasn’t necessarily a lock to leave, so the fact that the Pirates let him go as opposed to some roster “dead weight” (i.e. Brian Burres, Chris Leroux, Argenis Diaz, etc) is interesting.

That’s not to say I have a problem with the moves. They actually leave a small chance of retaining any of the three (if no other team claims or trades for them and the Pirates assign them to the minors rather than releasing them). Zach Duke has become possibly the most hittable starting pitcher in baseball. Andy LaRoche was given ample opportunity to prove that he could live up to his big-time prospect status and couldn’t do it. Now he “doesn’t even hit the ball hard in BP anymore,” struggles in the field, and doesn’t have a position to play anymore.

Young was mildly useful off the bench with his ability to pinch hit and play a couple different positions, but it’s become quite clear that he can’t do much more than that. Decent pinch hitter? Sure. Quality overall major league hitter? No way. And it’s no secret he’s well below average on defense pretty much everywhere. The only issue with cutting him is that the Bucs will need to find another utility man, which hasn’t worked out well in the past (Gomez, Hinske, Vazquez, etc).

Of course, I wish all three the best and hope they can beat the odds and turn around their careers. Duke gave the Pirates his all and provided a ton of awesome moments on the mound during his time here, and it’s a shame he couldn’t end up being the solid piece of the rotation we all thought he would be for a while. Young dazzled with his pinch hitting at times, is automatically awesome for being the first major leaguer to homer off Stephen Strasburg, and worked his tail off just to be decent at second base last year after Freddy was traded. LaRoche was frustrating to watch, as all fans of the Jason Bay trade wanted him to succeed so desperately and he could never quite put it together. And of course, all three were great guys. Even if their on-field contributions won’t be, their personalities will be missed.